More Beautiful You
by tin2lo
Summary: Moves from Movie to Canon. Susan helps Lucy get through a rough and awkward time when one begins to judge themselves based on outer beauty. Loosely based on song "More Beautiful You" by Jonny Diaz.


**Hey all you people! This oneshot is based around the song "More Beautiful You" by Jonny Diaz. It has such an amazing message to girls everywhere and when Georgie Henley stated that Lucy was going through an awkward phase when it comes to vanity, it made me think of this song. As many of you already know, Lucy is feeling the need to be as or more beautiful than Susan. So this is sorta based around the Magician's spell book in the Dawn treader. I DID NOT watch the movie BUT I'm basing part of it on the scene in which she sees Susan in the book as herself. I'm only working with what the Trailer gave me…so no criticism on inaccuracy.**

**Few things that need to be explained: I made Susan the music and artsy one of the family. I figured that Peter would be politics, Edmund would be Law, and Lucy would be social skills (being the best with Narnians' feelings). Another thing, I felt that this story goes from movie to canon because it ends at the Last Battle. Vanity becomes Lucy's rising and Susan's fall.**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill, what's familiar is probably not mine.**

A normal day in dreary old England – cold, grey, and rainy. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It meant that the Pevensie children weren't expected to go anywhere, do anything, or meet anyone. Of course that wasn't the same for the Pevensie parents. They had things to do, lives to live even if their children didn't want to join them. So alone were the four royalties in the study, where they could reminisce about their first and second trips to Narnia if they did so choose. They had made it tradition to not play hide and seek when they were alone on a rainy day. It just didn't seem right.

Today was unusually quiet for the four of them. But none of them minded the silence. Lucy was reading a magazine, Peter was posing for a portrait Susan was sketching of him, and Edmund was strumming on his guitar to a tune while Susan was humming to it. Because the connection between the two middle Pevensies was so strong, they were sometimes able to do things using only the exchange of glances and sounds rather than words and phrases. Susan had learned the piano and guitar at an early age and Edmund's interest caused her to teach him. Soon the two began writing songs together about the things in life that they felt were significant. When Edmund couldn't sleep, Susan would lie down next to him and sing to him a lullaby she would write just for him. Susan had learned awhile ago that speaking the words of wisdom to her would do them no good because they wouldn't listen. Singing it to them, for some strange reason, always made it easier for them to comprehend the message. She never exactly understood why. Because of Susan's need for the piano, Cair Paravel was known for its halls filled with music. Susan would sometimes start a piece and then Edmund would end it. Narnians traveled from afar just to visit the castle and listen to its music. Music was what Edmund and Susan took very seriously when no one else around them was willing to take _them_ seriously. Neither of them really connected with anyone else – even their other two siblings.

If there was one thing their eldest brother was notorious for, it was inability to sit still for long periods of time. After sitting in the same position for about an hour, he began to fidget causing his younger sister great irritation for he had just messed up the portrait she was making of him. "Peter, would it kill you to hold still for a little while longer?"

"I'm sorry, Su, but you know portraits were never exactly a favorite past time of mine."

Edmund smiled at a memory. "Yeah, remember that time in the Golden Age when we were having our first family portrait painted? The faun painting us was ready to throw his paint at Peter for not holding still long enough and continuously messing up his masterpiece."

Susan and Edmund laughed at the memory. Peter blushed and shot death glares at the two. After their laughing subsided, Peter decided to turn the attention to elsewhere. Although not as attentive as Edmund, he happened to notice that Lucy (who under normal circumstances would laugh at a moment like this) was not talking or laughing. It seems as though she was too mesmerized by her magazine. It was quite strange. He decided to make conversation move over to her. To lighten the mood he decided to ask her casually about the dance they were having at her boarding school. It was technically a joint dance between hers and Edmund's boarding schools. He already knew Edmund wasn't going. He just wasn't social like that. Susan gave up on all of those types of dances and such and he himself had already graduated therefore no longer invited. "Hey Lu, shouldn't you be getting ready for your dance? It begins in about two hours."

She faced him with daggers in her eyes, stood up and said "I'm not going" in the harshest of tones, threw her magazine to the ground, and ran upstairs to her room slamming and locking the door shut. The three older Pevensies just stayed where they were – frozen and shocked.

Peter looked at his other younger siblings. "Was it something I said?" Edmund just shrugged. It seems as though for once both brothers were on the same page – not exactly knowing what just happened or how to deal with it.

Susan put down her sketch pad and walked over to where Lucy was previously sitting. She picked up the magazine Lucy was looking at and sighed heavily. She looked up at her brothers. She gave them a hopeless look and an eye role. "For the brilliant kings you are, you two can be such idiots!" She ran upstairs calling Lucy's name leaving her two brothers to think the same thing "What did I do?"

When Susan finally got to the top of the stairs, she gently knocked on the door. "Lucy please let me in."

Lucy's simple reply was "Go away."

"I don't really think I can do that, hon."

"And why not?"

"Because A) It's my room too and B) I really want you to talk to me." Susan knew Lucy was in the middle of being a child and an adolescent. This time of her life was awkward and Susan knew exactly how to deal with it. She did go through puberty twice and it's not any easier the second time and this was Lucy's second time.

Lucy opened the door and allowed Susan to come in. Susan gave her infamous gentle smile at her sister. Lucy just sat down on her bed hugging her pillow while Susan shut the door.

Susan looked at Lucy's vulnerable state. "So, would you like to tell me what's wrong?" No answer from Lucy. "Alright, I'm guessing it has something to do with this…" Susan lifted up the magazine while Lucy turned her head away trying not to care. Susan gave a satisfied smile. "Thought so…oh Lucy."

Susan walked over to Lucy's bed, sat down, and hugged her little sister. In her hair Susan started singing a little tune for her. "Little girl fourteen flipping through a magazine said she wants to look that way. But her hair isn't straight, her body isn't fake and she's always felt overweight."

Lucy pulled herself away from her older sister and looked at her with a curious face. Susan kept singing her advice. "But little girl fourteen I wish that you could see the beauty is within your heart. And you were made with such care, your skin, your body and your hair are perfect just the way they are."

Lucy got off of the bed. She looked at Susan harshly and began to yell. "You don't get it Susan. I've always been different. I've always been shadowed by you. Don't you get it? You're the beauty of the family and I'm the plain one. You were the one who was always asked to dance by suitors and it's no different here in England. I'm not going to the dance because I know that I'll be treated as though I was invisible. I'm sick and tired of it…of being self conscious about myself!" Lucy turned her back on Susan.

Susan let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm sorry you feel that way and I'm sorry you don't want to believe in what I've told you. Vanity isn't everything, Lu. The Narnians loved you for being their Valiant Queen and thought you were beautiful the way you were."

Lucy still didn't face her sister. "The difference is that back in Narnia I was known as an individual. No one knew of the reputation that I had to live up to…no one expected anything out of me before or after I was crowned."

Lucy proved Susan's theory again…she wasn't going to listen to Susan's spoken words and she now proved a new theory – a simple song wouldn't make things any better. Susan felt that this was all her fault and like many times when Susan was undergoing guilt, she needed to figure out a way to fix it. After another exasperated sigh, Susan submitted. "Lucy…what if I help you to be, how you say, _more_ beautiful." Susan was careful to emphasize the _more _so that Lucy would know that she was already beautiful now.

Susan began to win Lucy over because she started to turn to face Susan as though she was curious yet on the fence about it.

In about twenty minutes, Lucy was out of the shower, hair and body dry. She sat down on a chair not facing her mirror, in her bathrobe waiting for Susan to return. Susan agreed to help Lucy. If making Lucy "beautiful" was what it took to give Lucy her confidence back, Susan was willing to do it. Soon Susan returned with a regular hot iron rod in her hand. She was careful to hold it using a towel. It was hot but not hot enough to burn through anything too thin…such as hair.

Lucy looked at her older sister as though she was about to be murdered. Her eyes became saucers. Susan spoke when she noticed. "Relax, Lu. It won't hurt a bit."

Lucy still a little scared replied. "What exactly are you going to do with that thing?"

"I'm going to curl your hair." Lucy just looked at her with a strange face. Susan just rolled her eyes. "Just relax."

Lucy wasn't a stubborn child but she just couldn't seem to relax herself. She shut her eyes tight. Susan fixed and straightened Lucy's hair until it was in the perfect position to be curled. Susan always liked Lucy's hair. Lucy had the straight and easily managed hair. Susan's hair was naturally wavy and she didn't see it as anything special – and yet suitors from all over were able to write poems describing her hair alone.

As Lucy's eyes were shut tight, Susan began to take parts of her hair and wrapping it around the hot iron rod. The tighter you wrapped it, the curlier it would be and since Susan wasn't planning on changing Lucy to the point of which you could not recognize her, she wrapped the hair enough to make Lucy's hair in between being curly and wavy. Lucy refused to open her eyes although after a while she realized the ordeal really was painless. While Susan was doing this, she began to sing a little tune to herself…probably trying to finish the song she started earlier trying to comfort Lucy. When she started putting words to it and mumbling it to herself, Lucy became curious (as curiosity came naturally to her) and looked at her older sister but Susan just moved Lucy's head forward again and said nothing further, leaving the two sisters in silence. After Susan stopped her mumbling, she took out a piece of paper and a pencil and jotted something down before continuing with Lucy. Curling Lucy's hair took a little while because every once in a while when the iron rod was no longer hot, Susan would have to go downstairs and heat it again over the fire or the stove. Lucy, although she trusted her sister, refused to turn around and see the progress in her mirror. After about twenty curls later, Susan pulled the front part of Lucy's hair back, only leaving the one curl that was her bangs, and pinned it.

Now that Lucy's hair was done, Susan moved on to other things. Because Susan knew Lucy was already beautiful in her own way, she didn't plan on changing Lucy's appearance but more of rearranging it to Lucy's liking. Susan put on a minimal amount of foundation, mascara, and lip gloss to her sister's face, only enough to emphasize certain parts of her face such as her lovely blue eyes. When Susan finally finished, she told Lucy to turn around to see the finished product.

Although Lucy was a little nervous, she willing turned in her seat to see herself in the mirror. What she saw surprised her. Lucy's smile widened at seeing her reflection. Susan really had outdone herself. Lucy touched her face several times to make sure it really was herself that she was looking at. Although her smile was bright, it slowly diminished at the realization of something.

Susan noticed that a frown was slowly marring her sister's face. She started to worry. Had she done something wrong? "Lucy what's wrong? Don't you like it?"

Lucy looked at her sister. "No, I love it…it's just that…I don't really have anything to wear to match my appearance." Lucy looked down. All this hard work for nothing.

Susan thought hard. Finally, she figured it out. She walked over to her closet and pulled a box out from under. The box was a little dusty but she blew off the dust and brought it over to her sister. "Mum gave this to me a while ago. She got it after the war ended and thought I'd wear it to one of her parties if I ever decided to join her but she forgot I had grown a little since coming back from the professor's mansion. It never really did fit me, but it might for you."

Lucy took the box and opened it. She smiled when she saw the dress inside. She was just rendered speechless. Susan smiled at her reaction. "Oh yes, I think it'll do."

Twenty Minutes Later:

The boys had seen Susan walk up and down the stairs several times, trying to ask her what was going on but she just ignored them and continued on her merry way. Because of their worry over Lucy, neither of the two were able to go back to their previous doings. When they saw Susan come down the stairs they decided to finally confront her but she held up her hand to stop them. "I would like to announce Miss Lucy Pevensie of the shining city of War Drobe from the wonderous land of Spare Oom, Valiant Queen of Narnia." Susan held her left arm up gesturing to the top of the stairs where the youngest (who could no longer be called the littlest) stood waiting for her brothers to notice her.

When both brothers saw her, they just stood shocked with their mouths wide open. Neither could say anything for they could not recognize the young lady who was slowly making her way down the stair case. Susan took Lucy's hand as though Susan was the suitor leading Lucy to the dance floor. Instead, Susan led Lucy to face her eldest brother.

Lucy looked up at Peter. She smiled at him and said "How do I look, Pete? Am I pretty?" Peter took a good look at his youngest sister. Her hair was slightly curled and slightly wavy, her eyes shone like the stars, and she was wearing a dress that reached about knee length with a pinkish and white coloring to it. The skirt portion of her dress was a little poofy/frilly and yet every single change in her only accented every good part of her.

Peter took a big breath, finally realizing that he couldn't stop her from growing up into the young woman he knew she'd one day be. "You look beautiful, Lu."

She blushed and looked away smiling. She saw Edmund put a hand on Susan's shoulder as if to say "well done, sis." Lucy looked back at her eldest brother. "Peter, would you do me the honor of escorting me to the dance?"

Peter didn't know what to say. He didn't really want to because it was almost like giving her away at her wedding. He stumbled a bit with his answer. "I don't really know, Lu."

Before Lucy could respond, Susan did for her. "It's alright if you don't want to, Peter. I'll just drive her and Edmund can escort her to the dance. I just hope he doesn't get too distracted at the snack tables. Who knows what kind of boy will ask Lucy to dance while he's eating."

Edmund snickered. Peter turned pale. He knew what Susan was doing. He understood the hidden message. _If you take her, you can approve all the guys who go near her. _Even Susan understood that Lucy was too young to date guys – though she never told that to her sister.

In ten minutes, the eldest and the youngest Pevensie left for the dance.

The events of this night allowed Lucy to grow in confidence and be less self conscious about herself. Although she didn't wear any make up more than a hint of lip gloss, she was able to style her hair in the many ways Susan taught her and learned how to make the best parts of her stand out when she wanted it to, manly her eyes which was never really noticed for its blue intensity. A few months later Lucy and Edmund find themselves in their cousin's home being almost drowned by a magical painting leading them into their beloved land of Narnia.

Throughout the voyage, all three visitors learned more about themselves than they thought they knew. This trip was also a way to test their faith in not only Aslan, but in themselves. It is this lesson that Lucy learns while staring into the spell book of a magician. _Book of Incantations, _the title reads. She flips through the pages finding several different spells, one in particular catching her eye. The spell is to turn the reader into the most beautiful person alive. Lucy looked in the mirror to see her face transform into that of her beautiful older sister. To be like Susan, isn't that what she really wanted? She looked at the beauty in the mirror. It was what she wanted…she touched her face "I'm beautiful." She would read the spell. But just before she started reading the spell, right after she made her decision, she saw the image of her sister shaking her head "no." Lucy was confused. It was as if the image of her sister was trying to tell her something: _There can never be a More Beautiful You. Don't buy the lies, disguises, and hoops they make you jump through. You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do. So there could never be a More Beautiful You._

Lucy felt as though she heard that before. She immediately remembered the night Susan first did her hair and her mumbling while doing it. She was telling her his then and she was doing it again now. Lucy felt ashamed. "I'm sorry, Susan." Soon she heard Aslan's voice and she knew she'd be forgiven.

Several years after this voyage and a few months after a train crash, the last remaining Pevensie sits on a bed not knowing what to do. She had spent a lot of time trying to be someone she wasn't and someone she didn't want to be because of how weak she was. And now, when all she wanted was to be comforted and forgiven by Narnia and Aslan, she felt as though she couldn't…because she wasn't strong enough. Moments later, the door rings. A man gives her a letter. Strange…no one ever sent her letters anymore…because she didn't have anyone. She opened the letter only to find an aged piece of paper with the handwriting of her sister:

_Turn around, you're not too far to back away be who you are.  
To change your path, go another way. It's not too late, you can be saved.  
If you feel depressed with past regrets, the shameful nights hope to forget  
Can disappear, it can all by washed away by the one who's strong, can right your wrongs  
Can rid your fears, dry all your tears and change the way you look at this big world  
He will take your dark, distorted view and with his light he will show you truth  
And again you'll see through the eyes of a little girl_

There was another page behind Lucy's writing that made her smile. It was the piece of paper she scribbled on so long ago that she meant for Lucy at the time:

_There can never be a More Beautiful You  
Don't buy the lies, disguises, and hoops they make you jump through  
You were made to fill a purpose that only you can do  
So there can never be a_

_**More Beautiful You**_

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**I hope you enjoyed the fanfic. I haven't worked on a oneshot in a while so please tell me how I did. You wanna know what Lucy looks like when she's ready to leave for the dance? If you didn't get it, here's a hint: LUCY'S DANCE APPEARANCE DISCRIPTION = GEORGIE HENLEY PRINCE CASPIAN NEW YORK PREMIER (just in case I didn't describe it well enough).**

**Alright here's a bribe for all you lovely reviewers. I will be updating every single one of my fanfics (that's right EVERY SINGLE ONE which INCLUDES those that have been put on hiatus). Here's the catch though, what I've learned on fanfiction though is that the longer you wait to update anything, the less reviews you get. SO lovely readers, I will put this in different terms for your understanding:**

**Math: read + review = happiness happiness = speedy updates  
Science/Chem: reviews might give someone endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands…I mean…happy people update faster.  
English: REVIEW THIS STORY AND I'LL UPDATE MY OTHER ONES.**

**So read and review please.**

**-tin2lo**


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